With the new season of the English Premier League just kicking off, it’s time to get football crazy. It is known to be easily the most watched football league in the world. If that’s not enough, sports analyst Evan Dombroski, recently talked about how the stats back it up to be the highest quality league in the world, which we reported here at All Peers.
It’s no wonder, then, that we’re super excited to watch all the action as the biggest teams in the league do battle to reign supreme. Will it be current champions, Manchester City, or will Liverpool manage to wrestle it back from them? Plus, Chelsea and Manchester United have made some big signings, and will be looking to bridge the gap to the top this year.
Playing in the Premier League is, obviously, the pinnacle of most footballers careers, and you have to be both incredibly talented and driven to succeed at it. It’s no wonder, then, that the best players have hobbies to take their mind off the stresses of football, and so here’s a quick look at some of the most interesting.
Diogo Jota
You might think that relaxing by playing football video games would be a bit of a busman’s holiday for a Premier League player, but you try telling that to Diogo Jota. The Liverpool forward is a nightmare for teams to defend against on the pitch, as he darts everywhere, assisting his team-mates and scoring some great goals. Well, it seems that he carries those skills across to the virtual world too, as the twenty-four-year-old loves to spend anytime that he’s not on the pitch playing FIFA 21.
FIFA 21 is the most popular current football game around, and is made by mammoth game developers, EA Sports. They release a new version of it every year, and the next instalment, FIFA 22, will be out on 1st October 2021.
It would be unfair to say that Jota just plays FIFA though, as he absolutely dominates at it. The Portuguese player was ranked number one in the world on the FIFA Ultimate Team Champions back in February. To put that into perspective, he was beating professional E-Sports players, that’s people who get paid handsomely to play FIFA because they’re so good at it. Not just that, but in May 2020, Jota won the FIFA 20 ePremier League Invitational, which was a competition for professional footballers to play the game against each other. Just pray you don’t come up against him in online mode then.
James Maddison
James Maddison has been under great speculation that this summer he might move from his current team, Leicester City, to Arsenal. Apparently, the London team are desperate to have his creative skills in their midfield and are willing to splash £60 million on the Englishman. If you watch the player closely, then it’s easy to see why; his masterful through-balls and exquisite passing are exactly what Arsenal are missing.
When Maddison isn’t pinging off perfect defence splitting balls though, he enjoys unwinding by visiting casinos. The twenty-four-year-old has a real love of gambling, and will regularly be seen putting in the hours at various casinos across the country.
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Petr Cech
The legendary Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech may have basically retired from playing football, but interestingly, he’s still an emergency back-up keeper for Chelsea. He, also, manages to combine this role with being a technical and performance advisor at the London club. That’s why he’s more often than not seen suited and booted in the stands, looking on admiringly.
To be a great goalkeeper you need to have fantastic hand-eye coordination, and Cech is easily one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. Another skill that needs tremendous hand-eye coordination is drumming, and the Czech superstar has revealed that that’s his favourite activity to do when he’s not at football. As you would expect, he’s an exquisite drummer too, and to celebrate Chelsea winning the Champions League in May, he posted a video of him drumming along perfectly to Queen’s We Are The Champions over on his Instagram.
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